The Human Paratuberculosis Foundation strives to accelerate the most promising Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) research initiatives and seeks to sponsor innovative research projects which will add to our understanding of MAP’s role in human disease. We encourage cooperative efforts among investigators, research centers, and other resources.
Human Para’s research goals include:
The creation of a human MAP diagnostic test.
Detection of MAP in the human population.
Understanding the mechanism of MAP in human disease.
Creation of therapeutic approaches for human MAP conditions.
Preventing transmission of MAP to the human population.
Explore the projects below to learn more about the research studies supported by Human Para, and how you can become involved in this important work.
The Presence of MAP in the Blood of Crohn’s disease and Control Subjects
For our initial study, Human Para has partnered with 6 research labs in an effort to detect viable MAP from blood samples of 201 participants (61 Crohn’s patients, 140 controls.) Each laboratory will use their own method for MAP detection and results will be analyzed. Whole genome sequencing will be performed on up to 40 mycobacterial isolates. Further details and methodology are available on the study homepage.
Pediatric MAP Testing Pilot Study
Human Para is proud to partner with Otakaro Pathways, McGill University and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) pediatric GI research group for this research study. McGill and CHOP will each send 15-20 blood samples from Crohn’s disease and control subjects (blinded) to Otakaro Pathways for detection of cell wall-deficient mycobacterial testing.
October 2020 Update: After a brief pause due to COVID-19, the final samples have been received by Otakaro Pathways and testing is now complete. A total of 39 samples were received. The research team will be meeting to discuss the results shortly.